It is recognized that in order to save table space and to increase people's mobility and viewing lines in the room, environment, or other space, such as a theater room, it may be desirable to view or otherwise enjoy multimedia on a display using a minimum of wiring. For instance, it may be desirable to mount a projector on the ceiling or to mount a plasma display or liquid crystal high definition (HD) television display on a wall, out of the way and capable of receiving multimedia data for display without the need for wires, since as understood herein among other things data transmission lines often do not exist in ceilings or walls.
Digital multimedia communications encompass the transmission of digital audio/video information from a digital data source, such as a DVD player, video receiver, ATSC tuner, or other computer, to a receiver, such as a flat panel video monitor, television (TV), a digital television (DTV), or other compatible display device, for the purpose of multimedia entertainment, including playing digital movies, games, listening to music, etc. A protocol known as High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) has been developed to support audio/video multimedia communications. HDMI is a digital audio/visual connector interface capable of transmitting uncompressed and compressed streams, and supports the use of audio as well as video data and television-related resolutions.
A wireless link in support of such digital multimedia communications must have a bandwidth that is insufficient to carry either compressed or uncompressed multimedia such as uncompressed high definition (HD) video and compressed multimedia standard definition (SD) video. Moreover the wireless communications preferably has a shorter link that will not extend beyond the immediate location of interest, thus protecting copyright and other intellectual property. There is therefore the need for a very short range, preferably directional, high bandwidth wireless link that is particularly suited for the short range wireless communication of uncompressed multimedia, particularly the rather voluminous genre of multimedia known as HD video.
The present assignee has provided a wireless system that functions in the spectrum between 57 GHz and 64 GHz (hereinafter referenced as the “60 GHz band” or Milli-Meter Wave Communication (MMWC) technology). Characteristics of the 60 GHz radio frequency (RF) spectrum include short range, high directivity (and, hence, inherent security), being highly linear in operation, and large data bandwidth, and MMWC technology may be used to transmit high definition (HD) video in High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) format from a source in a space to a receiver in the space, using a high bandwidth 60 GHz link. As used herein, sources and receivers in a MMWC communication environment or space may also be referred to as “devices.” At this frequency the signal has very short range and can be directional such that the video may be transmitted in an uncompressed form such that so much data is transmitted each second that bootlegging the content is essentially untenable.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.